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Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2019, 46(2): 374–383. RESEARCH PAPER
Abstract: To determine the effect of dissolution on pore network development in carbonate rocks, dissolution experiments, X-Ray mi-
crotomography, and thin section analysis were conducted on argillaceous limestone and grain limestone samples at different temperatures and
constant pH, HCl concentration. The relationship between Ca2+ concentration and time was revealed through the experiments; pore size
distribution before and after dissolution indicate that there is no correlation between the temperature and pore size variation, but pore size
variation in grain limestone is more significant, indicating that the variation is mainly controlled by the heterogeneity of the rock itself
(initial porosity and permeability) and the abundance of unstable minerals (related to crystal shape, size and mineral type). At different
temperatures, the two kinds of carbonate rocks had very small variation in pore throat radius from 0.003 mm to 0.040 mm, which is 1.3 to
3.5 times more, 1.7 on average of the original pore throat radius. Their pore throat length varied from 0.05 mm to 0.35 mm. The minor
changes in the pore throat radius, length and connectivity brought big changes to permeability of up to 1 000×103 μm2.
Key words: 3D pore networks; carbonate rocks; pore structure; mudstone; grainstone; acidizing; dissolution, X-Ray micro tomography
peratures and pressures). Luquot et al.[1] analyzed the impact 1.2. X-Ray Micro CT imaging
of CO2-rich brine on limestone reservoir properties and con-
Each sample was scanned with X-Ray CT System (inspeXio
cluded that porosity and permeability changes were controlled
SMX-255CT) at 160 kV and 100 µA. After scanning, the im-
by inlet fluid disequilibrium and the initial reaction rate.
ages were processed and then pore networks were extracted
Noiriel et al.[31] evaluated the 3D changes of fractures in lime- using VGStudio Max 2.1, ProAnalyzer, Fiji ImageJ and Avizo
stone at room temperature and noticed that there was no pref- Fire software. In order to evaluate the impact of dissolution on
erential flow pathways formed and the presence of any sili- fluid flow properties of the samples, Avizo Fire software was
cates in carbonate rocks led to heterogeneous dissolution at used to simulate the permeability before and after dissolution.
micro-scale. Menke et al.[11] investigated the dynamic evolu- These simulations were performed following Darcy’s law,
tion of pores in carbonate rocks saturated with CO2 brine at under the following conditions: inlet and outlet pressures of
50 °C and 10 MPa and concluded that the ratio of surface area 2.75106 Pa and 0.10106 Pa respectively, and the viscosity of
to volume and porosity increased. Rötting et al.[32] found that 1.96105 Pa·s (helium viscosity at room temperature).
significant dissolution only occurred in certain pore diameter
1.3. Petrophysical analysis
at specific conditions. Even though, these researches have
given important knowledge on pore system modifications at Thin section observation of both rock types shows that they
different pressure and temperature conditions, the impact of differ widely in pore characteristics. Type 1 rock has pores
dissolution on carbonate pore systems still needs further that are restricted and isolated within the general fabric of the
study[3337]. Therefore, the objective of this study is to find out rock (Fig. 1a). Type 2 rock has pores that are interconnected
the effect of dissolution on pore network in carbonate rocks at and distributed throughout the rock fabric (Fig. 1b).
various well conditions and temperatures. Comparing the two types of rock shows type 1 rock has a
porosity of 20% and permeability of 1.39103 μm2; type 2
1. Materials and methods
rock has a porosity of 36% and permeability of 1 063.38103
1.1. Dissolution experiment μm2. From XRD analysis, type 2 rock is composed of 96.88%
of calcite and 3.12% of dolomite whereas type 1 rock is com-
The dissolution experiments of two types of carbonate
posed of 87% of calcite and 13% of dolomite. In terms of the
rocks, mudstone (type 1 rock) and grainstone (type 2 rock),
mineralogical composition, type 1 rock contains more stable
were performed in a closed bath reactor system[3839]. The pH,
minerals than type 2 rock. This implies that type 2 rock would
concentration of HCl and rotation rate of stirrer were main-
dissolve faster than type 1 rock.
tained constant at 1.2, 0.1 mol/L, 12.56 rad/s respectively According to the different dissolution temperatures (25, 50
during the experiments. The dissolution experiment was con- and 75 C), each rock type was divided in three portions. The
ducted at 25 °C, 50 °C and 75 °C for 100 min. Aliquots of type 1 rock portions were coded as M1, M2, M3 and the type
samples were collected every 10 min and the calcium concen- 2 rock portions were B1, B2 and B3.
tration in each aliquot was tested using Plasma-Optical Emis-
sion Spectrometry (Perkinelmer, Optima 8300 ICP-EOS 2. Results and discussions
Spectrometer) to figure out the Ca2+ concentration released by 2.1. Dissolution analysis
the carbonate rock sample. Variation of Ca2+ concentration
2.1.1. Relationship of calcium ion concentration and time
with time was analyzed to find out the dissolution rate law
and characteristics of dissolution kinetic. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the released Ca2+ increases
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ANDRIAMIHAJA Spariharijaona et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2019, 46(2): 374–383
Fig. 2. Relationship between Ca2+ concentration released from two types of carbonate rocks and time at different temperatures.
rapidly in the first 20 min at the initial stage of dissolution, ponents are dissolved, the release of Ca2+ generally decreases
and the increase of Ca2+ concentration gradually slows down and the dissolution remains constant. This could possibly be
with time. The second phase of dissolution is stable, which is due to the gradual saturation of the aqueous solution, or re-
related to the gradual decrease of released Ca2+. The temporal duction of highly reactive surface minerals as the experimen-
variation of released Ca2+ is described by the following gen- tal conditions remain unchanged (pH remains constant).
eral equation (Eq. 1) and obtained from the best fit model of
2.1.2. Dissolution kinetic models
Ca2+ concentration and time curve at 25, 50 and 75 °C.
lnCca ln Cca,0 k lg t ln Cca,0 kx (1) The instantaneous dissolution rate model is a function of
where x lg t rate constant and the released Ca2+ concentration, and can be
The generated model follows the first-order reaction char- written as the following equation (2).
acteristics and can be expressed by linear equation. The new dCca
r Cca, 0 ke kx kCca (2)
model is defined by two constants, the rate constant k and the dx
initial Ca2+ concentration Cca,0. The time and Ca2+ concentra- The dissolution kinetic model has characteristic of first or-
tion show good correlation, with R2 of 0.9. The dissolution der reaction. Based on this model, dissolution rate depends on
experiments show carbonate dissolution is stronger at higher initial concentration of Ca2+, the rate constant and laboratory
temperature (Fig. 2). conditions (Table 1). Type 1 sample dissolved slowest at 25 °C
The fast increase of Ca2+ concentration initially can be at- and type 2 sample dissolved fastest at 75 °C. The comparison
tributed to the presence of highly soluble, fine and unconsoli- of dissolution rates of the 2 types of carbonate rock shows that
dated carbonate crystals or grains and unstable and highly type 1 dissolves slower than the type 2 at any given tempera-
reactive minerals at the rock surface (Fig. 3). Scanning elec- ture. This is attributed to the type 1 (13% of dolomite) con-
tron microscopic image of Fig. 3a shows calcite mineral on tains more stable carbonate minerals than type 2 (3% of
type 1 rock surface before dissolution. Fig. 3b shows type 1 dolomite). As the experimental conditions of dissolution were
rock after dissolution, in which most of the fine and soluble identical, the variation of rate constant between the samples is
particles have been dissolved, leaving a more porous and attributed to the heterogeneities of rocks. These heterogenei-
smoother rock surface. Once these unstable carbonate com- ties include chemical element composition and petrophysical
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Table 1. Dissolution kinetics parameters of 2 kinds of carbonate rocks at 25, 50 and 75 °C.
Fig. 5. Porosity variation induced by dissolution of two types of carbonate rocks at different temperatures.
dominated by pore enlargement rather than creation of new significant porosity variation, whereas in less porous carbon-
pore system. ate rocks such as mudstone, important increment factor can
It can be seen from Fig. 6, porosity distribution is charac- lead to small porosity variation. Therefore, the most signifi-
terized by positive skewness. After dissolution at different cant porosity variation is obtained from the dissolution at the
temperatures, porosity distribution is still characterized by highest temperature of carbonate rock with high initial poros-
positive skewness but is slightly left skewed. After dissolution, ity.
kurtosis value decreases, implying that porosity distribution
2.2.2. Pore size distribution changes
peak is flatter than before dissolution. Porosity range after
dissolution also increases as compared to the porosity range In the 2 types of carbonate rocks, the total numbers of pores
before dissolution. In the type1 rock, porosity increases by 3.0, vary from 25 (in the less porous mudstone) to 4139 (in the
4.0 and 4.5 times from the initial porosity at 25, 50, 75 °C porous grainstone). After dissolution, these numbers decrease
respectively. However, these increment factors only corre- to 131637, which is in agreement with results provided in
spond to 3.50%, 0.32% and 0.83% increase of porosity at 25, Reference [11]. The reduction in pore numbers suggest that
50, and 75 °C respectively. In the type 2 rock, porosity only pores are merged together forming larger pores. Fig. 7 shows
increases by 1.6, 1.6, and 2.8 times from the initial porosity, the pore size distribution (PSD) of all samples before and after
but these increment factors correspond to a significant in- dissolution at 25, 50 and 75 °C. Pore size distributions of two
crease of porosity of 4.7%, 4% and 14.3% at 25, 50, 75 °C types of carbonates are lognormal distribution with normal
respectively. At 25 °C and 50 °C, the porosity variations are skewness. After dissolution, regardless of the temperature
similar whereas, at 75°C, the change is much more significant. variations, pore size distributions still show positive skewness
From these results, it can be inferred that the porosity in- but are slightly skewed left, and the pore size distribution
crement factor increases as the temperature increases. More- curve is flatter than the one before dissolution. The skewness
over, having a significant increment factor does not necessary of PSD after dissolution toward the higher value confirms that
mean high porosity variation. In this case, the initial porosity the increase of overall pore size. The decrease of kurtosis of
of carbonate rock contributes to the porosity enhancement by PSD after dissolution suggests that the PSD is more spread
dissolution. Therefore, during dissolution, in porous carbon- around the median than the one before dissolution.
ates such as grainstones, small increment factor can result in a For type 1 rock, the dissolution at 25, 50 and 75 °C made
pore size increase by 1.3, 1.5 and 1.1 times from the initial
pore size, and made the pore diameter increase by 0.06, 0.11,
0.02 mm respectively (Fig. 8a). Dissolution has more signifi-
cant effect on pore diameter of the type 2 rock than type 1
rock. At 25, 50 and 75 °C, pore diameter of type 2 rock in-
creased by 1.80, 1.60 and 1.92 times, corresponding to 0.08,
0.11 and 0.11 mm respectively (Fig. 8b).
No correlation is observed between the temperature and
pore size variation for the two rock types. On the other hand,
the pore size variation of type 2 rock is larger than that of type
1, which indicates that the heterogeneity of the rock and exis-
tence of unstable carbonate minerals are the key factors af-
Fig. 6. Histogram of porosity distribution before and after dis-
solution. fecting pore size enlargement.
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Fig. 7. Pore size distribution variation of 2 types of carbonate rock at different temperatures.
Fig. 9. Pore throat radius distribution variation of 2 types of carbonate rock at different temperatures.
Fig. 10. Pore throat radius variation of two types of 2 types of carbonate rock at different temperatures (using independent standard
deviation to calculate the interval).
Fig. 11. Pore throat length distribution variation of 2 types of carbonate rock at different temperatures.
Fig. 12. Variation of pore throat length of 2 types of carbonate rock at different temperatures.
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